Skift Take

Tripadvisor apparently got an offer it was easy to refuse.

Dennis Schaal

Tripadvisor stated this morning that a merger is not in the works for now.

“The Special Committee has determined that at this time, there is no transaction with a third party that is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders,” the company said as part of its first quarter earnings announcement. “The Special Committee will continue to evaluate proposed alternatives as appropriate. There can be no assurance that any transaction will result, and the Company does not expect to provide further updates unless it has something definitive to share.”

The special committee was a reference to an independent board committee the company formed after controlling shareholder Liberty Tripadvisor announced in February it had received a merger proposal.

Skift reported that private equity firm Apollo Global Management was a likely suitor. There was speculation about whether other bidders were involved either in partnership with Apollo or independently.

There was also analysis that Liberty Tripadvisor and Tripadvisor entered any talks in a weak negotiating position because Liberty Tripadvisor is on the hook to Certares to repay a $325 million preferred stock investment by March 2025.

The mission of Tripadvisor’s special committee was to evaluate merger proposals and to engage in discussions about them.

Either the company didn’t come to terms with the bidder or bids were withdrawn.

What’s Next?

Tripadvisor is without a deep-pocketed partner for now, so what comes next?

One option is to proceed with a spin off of Viator into a separate public company. It had earlier plans to consider it, but it hadn’t been a priority before the buyout talks.

Tripadvisor also released its first-quarter earnings Wednesday morning. In the first quarter, Tripadvisor’s net loss narrowed to $59 million, from negative $73 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $395 million.